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Special Introduction - By x344543, May 15, 2000

Tom Scribner was a timber industry worker and a union
organizer his entire life. He joined the IWW in 1914 and was a
part of the LWIU's fight for the eight-hour day. He participated
in the formation of the once radical International Woodworkers of
America (IWA) of the CIO (now a mainstream union in the AFL-CIO).
He was an unabashed member of the American Communist Party during
its heyday in he 1930s. He founded two newspapers, Lumberjack
News and Redwood Ripsaw. He was a radical all his
life, and wrote a great deal. Much of his best work, he
self-published in Lumberjack.

This website includes a complete, unabridged copy of Tom
Scribner's self-published book, Lumberjack, originally
published in 1966. Between 1990-94, the members of Santa Cruz
General Membership Branch of the IWW reproduced several hundred
copies of Lumberjack, however they made a conscious
decision not to make any alterations to Scribner's original work.
This meant that no corrections were made to spelling,
grammatical, or punctuation errors. Furthermore, it meant that
they made no annotations or clarifications where Scribner's
politics differed from their own, even though the work was
circulated and sold as unofficial IWW literature. As a
result, there are several potential problems that I found it
necessary to address.

It is most appropriate to leave unaltered numerous grammatical
errors made by Scribner, as he was a timber worker his entire
life and not a scholar. Scribner himself apologizes in his own
introduction for "bloopers on the Kings English". Members of the
Santa Cruz IWW believed, as do I, that to change these would be
to ruin the character of the writing and the tenor of the work.
HOWEVER, where I part company with my Fellow Workers' concerns
spelling and punctuation errors. I have cleaned these up, as I
found it necessary to do so, because retention of spelling errors
could cause unsuspecting visitors to this website to regard us as
dolts and radicals on the left are always subject to much greater
criticism then just about anybody else. Furthermore, corrections
of such errors make the writing easier to understand. I feel
nothing has been lost in the translation and transcription.

I have also made some additions, notably the assignment of
"chapter numbers" to allow for easy reference (even though
Scribner didn't even include a table of contents). Furthermore, I
have made an occasional annotation (in the form of footnotes) to
clarify points that might be obscure to most readers. A few
footnotes note, admittedly ideological difference that I have
with Scribner. Most of these concern his position on Communism.
Scribner was an unapologetic Communist, i.e. he believed that the
Soviet Union represented a step forward for the Working Class (it
is not clear whether or not Scribner was a Stalinist. He has
nothing to say about Mao or Trotsky in any of the writings
featured here, nor does he offer any criticism of Stalin for that
matter). History has, in my opinion, proven Scribner quite wrong.
Furthermore, the IWW Constitution and the theories that most
Wobblies have about industrial unionism differ very sharply from
Scribner's concept of Proletarian Revolution.

The IWW believes that the only way that we can achieve true,
maximum individual freedom for everyone as well as a world in
which we can all live sustainably, is through industrial
organization. Direct action at the point of production, and
organization in the workplace (or at the community level).
Political parties (not to be confused with political
action which is any action that involves political issues, be
they labor, environmental, or social justice) and seizure of
state power are a tactical and strategic cul-de-sac that will
only result in the continued oppression of he working class.
Scribner did not hold the same views and because of this, he quit
the IWW after the organization suffered a damaging split in
1924.

Why include his writings then, if he was no longer a complete
believer in the industrial unionism of the IWW? The answer is
simple. He was a member of the IWW (at least for ten years) and a
timber worker all of his life. Despite his ideological
disagreements with the IWW, he rightfully points out that the IWW
did more for timber workers in North America than any other
organization. Furthermore, he describes aspects of the timber
industry that can be found nowhere else. Finally, he was a union
organizer, whatever his politics, and the IWW believes that
organizing the unorganized is essential to abolishing wage
slavery.

Furthermore, one may well ask, why include ALL of
Lumberjack? Not all of the articles he wrote concerned the
Timber Industry. Some are merely political, such as "Jungle
Warfare", "The Clean Bomb", or "Economic Determinism." Others are
allegorical, such as "Council Meeting in Barbaria" or satirical,
such as "The American Standard of Living". A few are even
problematic, including especially the most lengthy chapter (which
I split into two parts) concerning the "Communist Era", as it
could give the unsuspecting reader the wrong impression about the
IWW (thus this is the most annotated chapter). I retain all of
these chapters, because they say something about the man who was,
despite his lack of formal education, a very streetwise
individual, self educated in the ways of socialism and labor
organizing, and certainly human. Essentially, were we to
disregard any of Scribner's, work we would be burying part of our
history.

Finally, it need be pointed out that not all of the work is
Scribner's. Two short chapters are reprints of pieces by
Socialist Eugene Debs, one other chapter represents brief quotes
from The Lumber Industry and its Workers (included
elsewhere on this website), and one poem is the work of a
contributor to Redwood Ripsaw (H. I. Phillips). There are
also various poems by IWW members. These are included exactly as
they were transcribed in Lumberjack. Whatever the source,
Scribner had a colorful way of expressing himself and a keen
sense of humor. Each of these chapters are entertaining
(certainly not dry and boring as you might expect from an
academic leftist) and engaging. I'm sure most of you will enjoy
them as much as I have.